In Zeroes and Ones
by V. Shalyr
Summary: Fiore is the newest virtual reality online game. It's a place for magic and adventures, but also for making friends and building relationships. AU, NatsuxZeref, slash
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer** : I do not own Fairy Tail.

 **Pairing(s)** : Natsu Dragneal x Zeref (pre-established, not incest)

 **WARNINGS: Slight AU ,** **Shounan ai (boy/boy pairing), you have been warned**

* * *

 **In Zeroes and Ones**

 **By V. Shalyr**

* * *

 **Part One**

A gentle breeze circulated the small studio apartment, bringing with it the clean, crisp smell of snow even though snow had yet to fall in the area. That was the advantage of living on campus, Zeref thought, turning a page of his book. Anywhere else in the city and that breeze would have been laced with car exhaust and concrete. At least the university had plenty of vegetation.

Their close proximity to the buildings where their classes took place also helped with Natsu's motion sickness issues. This way, they could get to class on foot easily.

The couch creaked a little when he shifted position. They'd gotten it from another student who had been moving out and it wasn't in the best condition, but it was clean and comfortable so that was okay. Dark eyes wandered from the neat lines of printed text to the digital clock on the table for the umpteenth time that morning. Natsu should be getting back soon. Zeref had taken the last of his own exams yesterday. It felt like forever until he finally heard the key scrape in the lock and the front door swung open.

"How did it go?" he asked immediately.

"Eighty-eight," Natsu declared, tossing the exam onto the coffee table with a gleeful grin. "Way better than last time."

The dark-haired boy smiled with a mixture of happiness and relief. He was always way more stressed about Natsu's exams than his own. Heck, he spent more time studying for them too, so he could help Natsu with anything he didn't understand and make sure he passed. It was lucky he was a genius because he was quite literally learning the material for twice as many classes as everybody else.

"Right," Natsu said, dropping his backpack by the closet. "Exams are over. We're not talking about school for the rest of the break, agreed?"

"Agreed."

"Great."

Walking over to the computer desk, Natsu switched on both laptops and picked up the two silver and black, helmet-like contraptions beside them. He held one of these out to his partner.

"Let's go then. You promised. We're spending the rest of today in the game. We've barely had any time to play together since before finals. You haven't had a chance to see my new magic yet, and I'm dying to show it off."

Zeref shut the novel he'd been reading, set it aside, and accepted the headgear.

"I am still amazed that you were actually able to find a dragon to teach you. They are extremely rare in this game."

"I didn't sleep for four days straight searching for one while you were attending that academic conference."

"...I'm not sure that's something you should be so proud of."

"Says the person who's leveled up his character so much he's practically immortal. And I take better care of myself than you do. You hardly remember to eat when I don't remind you."

"I play half as many hours though."

"Just because you're studying instead doesn't mean you can subsist on air, water, and sunlight. You wouldn't even get the sunlight if we didn't have such a bloody big window in here."

Zeref had to admit that this was true.

That window was one of the studio's few really commendable properties, situated in just the right place to allow the light of day to illuminate the entire room from kitchen to living area. It was honestly a little cramped for two people, but it was affordable and so they gave their thanks and counted their blessings that they were as close as they were.

It helped that Zeref was an extremely neat and tidy person too.

Natsu logged onto his computer and watched his companion do the same. Zeref had relaxed a lot since they were children. Natsu remembered meeting the other boy for the first time back when Zeref had first been brought to the orphanage. He had been... different. Many of the children there were quiet and withdrawn when they first arrived, but there had been a different look in the boy's dark eyes like he had seen too much of the world—and not just watched things happen but _understood_. He spoke like a grownup, never played with the other kids, and read books like their words were the only things that kept him alive. The only things that could fill up the emptiness that his life up until that point had left inside. It was because of those books that they'd first begun talking. The kindly old man who ran the orphanage treated everyone in it like family and made sure they all received a good education. Natsu had been having trouble with his school work and started ripping pages out of his textbook in frustration—until a quiet voice had asked him to stop. Natsu had been so surprised that he had listened, and then he'd spent the next half hour watching the smaller boy carefully and meticulously gluing the pages back in. He hadn't said anything, hadn't chided him like the teachers would or said that it was wrong like a lot of the other students might have, just looked at the book with such grave sorrow and disappointment that Natsu felt guilty enough not to ever do it again.

He still had a habit of doing that, Natsu thought wryly, usually when Natsu neglected to do his homework or played videogames when he should be preparing for midterms. He still wondered sometimes how he'd ever managed to talk the other boy into trying out the new online game with him. The timing of it had probably been a major factor.

Fiore had officially opened to players around the world around three years ago and had proved a tremendous success. The two of them had been in their last year of high school, and what a rocky year it had been.

It had been a chilly afternoon in late autumn that Natsu had stormed into the orphanage library where Zeref could almost always be found when he wasn't with Natsu or in class.

" _I looked at your applications."_

He didn't explain why he had been doing that. He routinely went through Zeref's things when he was bored, and since the other boy never complained, he never stopped.

" _You shouldn't be applying to those schools. With your test scores, you should be able to go somewhere way better."_

Zeref had looked away and said, _"I'll be fine. I don't think it really matters what school I go to."_

 _He would do well regardless._

" _Tell me you're not doing this because my scores aren't nearly as good as yours and you don't want to go to a different university."_

Except, of course, he couldn't do that because that was exactly why he was doing it, and Zeref couldn't bring himself to lie to him.

Natsu had growled and stalked out of the room, returning moments later to slam Zeref's application onto the table in front of him.

" _Change it."_

" _But, Natsu—"_

" _I'm not letting you throw this opportunity away, especially not because of me. I know you're not good at getting along with people, but that's no excuse. We're allowed to take the entrance exams again in the spring, right? Your job from now until then is to help me study so I at least have a chance of being accepted by any of the top five schools around here. I promise I'll work hard, and you know I'm not stupid. Now_ change it _."_

The dark-haired boy had stared at him for a long minute in shock and then mutely obeyed.

And Natsu _had_ studied hard. Hell, he'd never put so much effort into studying in his entire life. In the end, they hadn't gone to the best school in the region, but second place wasn't bad at all. Besides, they had offered Zeref a rather generous scholarship, something he and Natsu badly needed to keep their loans down to a minimum. It was shortly after that that they'd gotten their hands on the equipment needed to play Fiore.

.

"Hey, haven't seen you two around for awhile. Brought us anything good today?"

Natsu grinned and placed a dagger on the counter before the tall and somewhat burly shopkeeper.

"See for yourself, Elfman. A wyvern fang dagger fresh from the depths of Hellfire Canyon."

"That place? You two sure don't mess around. Did you hear about what happened to the last group of players who went in there?"

"Uh, no actually. We've been a bit too busy to keep up with the news."

Elfman picked up the ivory blade and inspected the ornate carvings in its hilt while he answered.

"Don't know all the details myself, but it seems that a bunch of players got wiped out by some new monster. Rumor has it that it takes the shape of a red wolf, and there's a lot of speculation about it being part of a special event."

"Really?" Natsu said, intrigued. "Can't say we ran into any wolves."

Zeref had the feeling he knew what they'd be doing later. When his partner and the shopkeeper began to haggle over the price of the dagger, he let his gaze wander around the spacious shop, searching warily for any signs of a white-haired girl. The three Strauss siblings ran the most reputable magical items dealer in Magnolia City. Potions, weapons, books, and all sorts of miscellaneous accessories—whatever you wanted, they could find for you, so visiting the place was unavoidable. Still, the youngest of the three siblings made him uncomfortable. It wasn't really her fault. She probably didn't even know how great an impact she had had on his life.

Lisanna Strauss had been so happy to encounter Natsu in Fiore. Zeref found out later that she'd stayed at the orphanage for awhile back before he'd arrived, and she'd left when her elder brother and sister had finally found her. It didn't matter what tragic accident had separated them and robbed them of their parents. The three were just glad to be reunited, and since Mirajane had a fulltime job, they'd been able to move into their own house and live together again. Her only regret had been leaving Natsu.

Despite having an excellent memory, Zeref couldn't recall which visit had set everything in motion. However, he remembered the incident in question in vivid detail.

" _I... always really liked you," the girl said, just a little shy because it had been years and they had only been children when she'd left._

 _The declaration hadn't actually surprised the black-haired boy who stood listening just outside the shop door. He hadn't meant to eavesdrop. He wasn't really the eavesdropping kind of person, but he'd come looking for Natsu and now couldn't bring himself to step into the neatly furnished room._

 _Through the wavy glass in the door, he couldn't make out Natsu's reaction, but that wasn't important at the moment. He was more preoccupied with the peculiar, almost detached feeling that had welled in his throat. Was he... upset? How strange._

It hadn't been especially dramatic. In fact, nothing much had happened at all because he'd wandered off in a daze to contemplate his own uneasiness. Funny really, for someone who was so prone to introspection, he really didn't know himself all that well sometimes. Natsu had always been better at understanding people, probably because he had excellent instincts and didn't over think things.

Natsu found him in Magnolia's central park some time later.

" _You really shouldn't have gone off by yourself. I hear there's a lot of rogue players around lately who like to ambush other players."_

 _Zeref glanced up from where he was standing next to the water fountain. Natsu always said that he had no sense of self preservation._

" _Will you... be spending more time with her?"_

" _Do you want me to?"_

" _Well... if that's what you want."_

 _Natsu raised his eyebrows. Zeref couldn't identify the expression on his face._

" _She's a good friend, but she's not you."_

 _Zeref thought that was pretty self evident._

 _Natsu searched his face for a moment then seemed to make up his mind about something._

" _Right, I'm done being patient. Patience never was my thing anyway, and I think you're being willfully dense. Or needlessly selfless. Just don't go freaking out on me, all right?"_

 _When Zeref just looked at him in confusion, Natsu glanced around to make sure they were alone in the park then took a step closer, cupped the side of his face with unexpected gentleness for someone who was usually so_ not _, and kissed him._

 _Natsu was prepared when his friend suddenly vanished, logging out of the game. He followed suit a split second after, yanked off his headgear and lunged, tackling the other boy to the floor before he'd made it two steps towards the front door. They hit the ground with a thud that their neighbors would probably be wondering about and a brief struggle ensued before Natsu managed to pin him and put a very definite stop to any chances of escape._

" _You can be such a coward sometimes," Natsu said, looking down at him with a mixture of exasperation and amusement. "What are you so afraid of? That I'll abandon you or something?"_

 _Whatever Natsu saw in his face made his eyes narrow. Zeref would have cringed away from that glare but there was nowhere to go._

" _I can't believe you still think that way. For someone who's so smart, you can be really stupid. You couldn't possibly have thought that I only hung around and worked so hard to keep us together because I had nothing better to do."_

 _Zeref looked away. Of course, deep down, he knew better than that. He knew how much they cared for each other, had felt the easy closeness that they shared that other people might have called chemistry, but he hadn't let himself dwell on it._

 _His fear of losing those close to him was so strong it bordered on pathological. Natsu didn't know what had caused it—if anything—because Zeref never talked about his past, but that didn't mean he hadn't noticed it. And Natsu thought as he gazed down at him that he looked very young. Zeref had always looked young—younger than Natsu, even though he was actually a couple months older. Nothing about the dark-haired boy matched up with his real age. He looked young but had the attitude and values of someone very old. Sometimes, it seemed like he'd gone from being ten to being a hundred without passing through the years that usually came in between. He was a mass of contradictions, and it was no wonder that people found it so hard to understand him._

In retrospect, Zeref supposed he should thank Lisanna for forcing him to face certain things about himself that he had avoided or outright ignored. Still, he would have been _perfectly_ happy to keep on avoiding the subject of his feelings for the rest of his life. He was more the "bottle it all up" kind of person, even though he knew it wasn't good for his mental health.

Natsu stowed away the coins they'd gotten in exchange, thanked the dealer, and snagged his partner's wrist on the way out of the shop.

Out in East Magnolia Plaza, a blond girl climbed up onto the lip of one of the plaza fountains and waved for everyone's attention, a nervous smile on her face. Several people paused to listen.

"Hi, my name's Lucy Heartfilia," she said, her voice squeaking a little. She stopped to clear her throat before continuing. "My friend and I want to start a guild, but we need more members to get officially recognized, so if anyone's interested, we'll be holding a meeting in the Golden Apple Orchard tomorrow at noon..."

She trailed off. Everyone waited.

"So, um, please come by and talk to us. Thanks for listening!"

Invitation delivered, she beat a hasty retreat.

Natsu watched her go with a thoughtful expression on his face where he stood before the items dealer.

"You know, I heard there are all sorts of new events that you have to be part of a guild to participate in."

"You would like to join a guild?" Zeref asked.

"Yeah, I think it might be fun. What about you?"

"If you join a guild then I will go with you. But I personally have no interest in playing with other players."

"Now we _have_ to join a guild. It would be good practice for you."

This earned him a resigned sigh from his dark-haired companion.

"Sometimes, I wonder why I tell you the things that I tell you."

"Because you love me, obviously."

Zeref sighed again. Most of the time, Natsu's presence made life a little easier to deal with. He was straightforward, strong, confident—a down to earth, "live by the day" kind of person. Before Natsu had come along, the future had always loomed over him like a vast, dark and daunting place. But when he was around, Zeref felt as though, no matter what troubles came their way—and he was sure they would come sooner or later, they would be okay.

Unfortunately, at other times, Natsu made his life rather complicated. Then again, the other could probably say the same thing about him. Perhaps that was just an inevitable aspect of not being alone.

.

Magnolia was one of a dozen or so major cities in Fiore. Aside from being safe zones where beginner and expert players could rest and mingle, they served as major supply points and the base of operations for numerous organizations. There were also a variety of shops and special locations where players could take part in mini competitions and other activities that didn't involve monster fighting like winged horse races and candy making. There was even a karaoke house.

The Golden Apple Orchard was one of these "fun" locations. The apples that grew on its tall, pale trees were excellent health recovery items, but picking them usually involved herding them from branch to branch and working with teammates to corner them. It also contained a handful of gazebos where players could hang out to chat or watch the hopeful apple pickers.

Zeref trailed after his partner with some reluctance. Natsu didn't exactly have to drag him kicking an screaming to social events, but that was only because it wasn't in the other boy's nature to act that way. He had his own version of the kicking and screaming, however, which generally consisted of dragging his feet and giving everyone the silent treatment.

Besides, Zeref didn't really like being in the Golden Apple Orchard. Looking at it made him feel guilty.

"I wonder what happened," the blond girl was saying to a tall woman in armor with bright red hair down to her waist.

The two stood on the steps of a white gazebo, gazing at a spot not too far away. It didn't take a genius to realize what had captured their curiosity. Amidst the numerous, pale brown trees with their rich foliage in green and golden was a grove of half a dozen trees that looked like they had been frozen in the dead of winter.

"Strange how they haven't regenerated," her friend agreed. "I'm pretty sure they weren't like this last time I came here."

"Uh, sorry about that," Natsu said, making his way over to the group. "That would be our fault."

The red-haired woman raised an eyebrow, glancing over the two newcomers.

"Your fault?"

Natsu draped an arm about Zeref's shoulders and grinned, more amused than repentant.

"Yeah. My partner here picked up a crazy powerful spell from a special event a while back. It basically kills everything within a ten-meter radius of him, and when he first got it, it kept activating on its own because its level was too much higher than his. It was a real pain."

That was an understatement.

The white scarf Natsu now wore was a rare item they'd hunted down because he was tired of being logged out of the game or spontaneously teleported back to his last save point every time Zeref's new skill activated without his consent. He'd also been tired of how guilty and depressed his partner got whenever these accidents happened. It was just a game, but that was Zeref for you. He always took things so seriously.

The apple orchard incident had been a bit of an embarrassment. It had been their first attempt at the apples, and one of them had jumped into Zeref's hood, startling him. Next thing they knew, he'd killed half a dozen trees. Luckily, there hadn't been any other players around or they might have had to deal with a lot of angry people.

He wondered when the administrators would get around to fixing them. The dead trees did sort of ruin the scenery.

"Don't worry about it though," Natsu added as an afterthought. "That doesn't happen anymore."

Zeref had leveled up his character like crazy over the past couple months so that he could actually control the skill. He'd jumped up in ranks so fast that nobody would believe this was the only RPG he'd ever played. Natsu was quite proud of him for that.

"That sounds like quite a spell," the woman said. "I've never heard of anything like it. My name is Erza, and I'm a Dimension Knight."

Before the others could introduce themselves, a fifth person joined the group.

"Hey," he said to Lucy. "You're the girl from yesterday, right?"

"That's right. Lucy Heartfilia," she said, smiling. "I'm a Celestial Summoner."

The ring of gold and silver keys jangled on her hip.

"I'm up to being able to summon two spirits now, but not for very long, although I can keep one spirit on the field for at least half a day if necessary. What about you guys?"

The newcomer—a black-haired boy dressed in a long, white coat—stuck his hands in his coat pockets.

"I'm Gray, and I'm an Elemental Mage specializing in ice. I only started playing this game recently with a friend of mine who's also an Ice Elemental Mage. He couldn't be here today, but he said he might join us later if it's all right with you. My spells mostly create objects—you know, like weapons. I can also make copies of certain objects out of ice, although they don't last very long."

"That's cool though," Lucy said. "And it could really be useful."

She looked at Natsu who grinned, revealing fangs.

"Zeref is a Demon Summoner. I started out as an Elemental Mage, but now I'm a Dragon Mage and I specialize in fire spells."

Lucy's eyes widened.

"But that means you have to have met a dragon."

"Sure did. It was awesome."

"A Demon Summoner, huh?" Gray asked, turning to Zeref. "I haven't met many of those. I heard it's hard to play as one."

"That's probably because you've got to solve a bunch of insanely complicated puzzles to unlock any of their really good skills," Natsu said when Zeref hesitated a bit too long.

"They're not that bad," Zeref said. He'd quite liked those puzzles. They had provided a nice change of pace from all the writing and reading he'd been doing for school, and they weren't as monotonous as monster fighting.

The main difficulty with being a Demon Summoner as far as he was concerned came with the fact that even though their endurance and defensive capabilities were exceptionally high, recovery items and healing spells had little to no affect on them.

"Seems like we've got a good collection of occupations," Erza said, looking pleased. "I've collected almost all of the available armors, and I have my share of special event weapons as well. That should help. You see, you have to clear a team quest in order to be recognized as a guild. If everyone who is interested is here, we can head over to the registration office, and they'll let us know what we have to do."

Later, after they had all logged out with plans to meet up again in two days, Zeref sat staring at his dark computer screen with a slight frown on his face.

"I can't believe we've actually joined a party. I'm... still not sure I'm happy about it."

"Don't worry so much. It's a game. We can quit any time, if that turns out to be what we really want to do."

Natsu grabbed their jackets from the row of hooks by the door and tossed one to him.

"Come on, we're going out for coffee."

Zeref got up slowly and pulled the jacket on. He still looked mildly troubled, but that was all right. Natsu was sure he would be okay once they got some coffee. That was how it always worked out. He knew the other boy well enough to know that Zeref wasn't actually upset by this change in events. He just didn't handle change very well and required plenty of time to adjust.

Besides, Natsu had a different reason for wanting them to be in this guild.

.

The downside of it being the holidays was that most of the shops and restaurants on campus either cut down their hours drastically or didn't open at all. This meant they had to go an extra two blocks to find a decent coffee shop. Winter was well on its way and it was a little chilly, but other than that, it was a pleasant walk. The streets were packed with people intent on enjoying the first afternoon of their holiday vacations. They exchanged greetings with a few of their classmates when they passed, and they even spotted one of their professors through the window of a small boutique. For some reason, that had made the vacation feel suddenly more real. It always felt strange to see teachers outside of the classroom, which was silly but still true.

They chose a table by the window, and the waiter brought them two mugs, a pot of coffee, and a dish of cream, the little cups piled into a miniature pyramid.

Zeref liked coffee.

Natsu liked most things edible.

"Wendy invited us and a bunch of others to a Christmas party. I told her we'd think about it."

Zeref looked up from his steaming mug.

"Do you want to go?"

"I'm good either way. I wanted to know what you thought," Natsu said with a shrug.

He made a point of making sure both of them attended some sort of social event at least once a month, but it was the holidays and he wasn't going to force the issue—even if it was for Zeref's own good.

Zeref's gaze dropped back to his mug.

"I will think about it."

"That's fine. Just let me know by the end of the week."

Natsu sat back and looked over at the menu on the wall. Now that he had something to drink, he liked the idea of something to eat too.

There had been a time back in middle school when Natsu had grown concerned that his friend was becoming just a little suicidal. Everyone knew that Zeref was brilliant, but that brilliance tended to set him apart and made him think too much, analyze things too closely, and perhaps remember more than was healthy. He was also much more sensitive than people generally gave him credit for. Counterintuitive though it might have been, it was because he cared about people that he disliked them so much. He saw all the terrible things that people did to one another, big and small, and he couldn't forget them—couldn't forgive them. He looked at the world and the lives of the people in it and found despair.

" _What's the point of it all?_ " he'd asked one dismal, rainy evening, lying on the floor of Natsu's room and staring blankly at the ceiling, a textbook open beside his head. " _History is simply this constant cycle of human mistakes and cruelties. Society advances, civilizations grow, but nothing seems to change. Nothing that matters. People study the past but never seem to learn from it. War or revolution, it's all the same. There's so much selfishness and greed and suffering... What's the point of living in such a world? Sometimes, I just want it to be over..."_

That was when he'd decided that Zeref needed to get out more.

Natsu couldn't remember everything he'd said and he hadn't understood half of it anyway, but he _had_ understood that somehow, all of these thoughts—or observations or theories or whatever—were hurting him.

The Saturday after that, Natsu had pried him out of bed at seven in the morning to go to a book signing for an author he knew his friend liked. That had been followed by an outdoor music festival with a few of Natsu's other friends, and then the pumpkin-carving event at the library for Halloween. Zeref somehow managed to make his own pumpkin perfectly symmetrical, and even though that hadn't been the point, people had been impressed. The pumpkin had also looked rather sad, and people had encouraged him to change that. Pumpkins, they said, should laugh at Halloween.

Natsu liked to think that they had fun, but more importantly, they met a lot of people—some of them not so nice and just a few downright rude, but many more that had been thoughtful, generous, or kind.

Zeref's mood had improved, and Natsu had turned the outings into a tradition.

.

Zeref had honestly been amazed by Fiore. Once you put on the headgear and logged in, it was like you were really there. Like the entire world around you had changed.

He and Natsu had appeared in a the Town of Beginnings like all new players, and his first view of the world had consisted of a vast, open plaza lined on all sides by massive, elegant archways. He had stood for a moment, taking it all in, and then turned to find Natsu,, who was inspecting him from head to toe.

" _You must be the only player in all of online gaming who looks exactly the same in the game as you do in real life."_

" _You only look different because you gave yourself fangs and claws."_

" _Different's different."_

" _I had no idea that gaming technology had advanced this far."_

" _Pretty amazing, huh? So what's up with the book?"_

 _Zeref blinked and held up the red-bound book in his hand, only just realizing that he had it._

" _This? I believe it's a starting item for my character."_

" _A book? That's kind of weird. Suits you though."_

 _Zeref opened the book, but the pages were blank. Most likely, he'd have to fill the pages himself._

" _Hey, forward me the beginner hints for your character. I'll cross reference them with mine so we can decide what to do first."_

The assignments had been easy then, more like small, low-stakes self challenges.

" _Okay, so I've just got to beat a dozen monsters in this hedge maze, and you've got to reach the center in under ten minutes." Natsu cracked his knuckles. "No problem! Let's go."_

Different occupational categories had their own array of tasks and requirements in order to acquire new spells, so they had focused on the ones that took place in the same areas. Players needed to build up a good number of spells before venturing out to explore for real and accepting serious quests.

There had been that garden maze on the east side of the Town of Beginnings, then the treasure hunt through the Honeycomb Fields adjacent to it. Some of the tasks were silly—playing a song with the musical water fountains, chasing down dust bunnies in a crabby old woman's mansion, and making sand castles on the beach. Others had been strange or strangely difficult—fishing for bejeweled lake serpents, team racing through the Frozen Woods, and catching a rare golden butterfly. That one had taken several tries because Natsu kept accidentally killing it. It was a good thing that it wasn't a real endangered species.

Zeref had a lot more fun than he had expected, due in no small part to Natsu. That was probably why the two of them were still playing.

Three years.

In all that time, they had never played as part of a group, but he supposed it was bound to happen sooner or later.

The five of them stood around the dry fountain that stood in the front yard of the abandoned house. It looked old and most of the details had been worn away by weather and time, but it was still recognizable as a petite woman with hair spilling in waves all the way down to her feet. According to the bronze plaque in front of her, she was Magnolia City's patron spirit, also known as Mavis.

"Our task," Erza announced, reading over the scroll in her hands once again, "is to restore this statue by locating three things—a Fairy Cloak, a Star Broach, and an Angel's Prayer."

"I think I saw something on the discussion boards about the Fairy Cloak," Lucy said, a hand at her chin while she struggled to recall. "If I remember correctly, you can only receive one by completing a quest for the Forest Queen, but she's really picky about who she gives one to. She offers a bunch of quests all year round, but only a handful of players have received one, so it's not enough just to finish the task she assigns you. Like maybe you need to get a particular kind of quest."

"Well, at least we know where to start," Gray said. "I don't mind asking around to see what kinds of players managed it. What about the other two things?"

Erza replaced the scroll in her dimensional pocket.

"Broaches and other such items usually have to be bought or made by craftsmen. Perhaps we should visit the marketplace. I know a number of good metal workers."

"Is the Angel's Prayer even an item?" Natsu wondered aloud. "I don't think there are any angels in this game."

Zeref agreed.

"No, there are not. But there are quite a few spells with "prayer" in their names. We may be able to find something in the Magic Library."

"Right," Erza said, taking charge of the situation, "this will be faster if we split up. Gray and I will head to the marketplace. We can ask about the broach and the cloak at the same time. And the rest of you can head to the library..." She considered this for a moment then added, "Message us if you three need help."

Ah, the Magic Library.

Natsu didn't much like the Magic Library, although because of Zeref, they were frequent patrons of the place. It wasn't that he had anything against books. It was just that these books were different. The Magic Library wasn't just a resource; it was a maze-like dungeon with more than a dozen levels rigged with traps and festooned with odd monsters.

Nobody ventured into the Magic Library alone, not if they were there for information anyway. You needed at least one other person to help protect you while you searched for the right shelf with the right book and the right page. Worse, if you accidentally destroyed a book, it took a whole twenty-four hours for the game to regenerate it. Needless to say, Fire Wizards weren't especially welcome. And even though Natsu was an excellent physical fighter, not using spells cut his firepower considerably.

"I've never been here before," Lucy said, looking around at the seemingly endless walls of bookshelves with amazement. "Is it really that dangerous?"

"Yeah, well," Natsu said darkly, "let's just say that it's the only time I've ever had a book try to eat me."

Zeref finished rearranging the pages of the books on the table beside which the gate had deposited them and stepped back. The open pages glowed followed by a subtle shift in the maze of shelves around them.

"I've arranged it in alphabetical order by subject. Hopefully, that will make finding something relevant easier."

"So would that be under angel, prayer, or spell?" Natsu asked.

"The "A" section is closest," Zeref said, gesturing behind them. "It would be easiest to start with that."

"Angel it is then." Natsu cracked his knuckles and started down the lane of bookshelves. "Hey, Lucy, since you've never been here, just a heads up. Try not to destroy any books if you can. The more books you destroy, the more monsters show up."

Lucy gulped, her hand going to her Gate Keys as she made a mental list of which spirits she could use. Most of them would cause far too much damage in these close quarters.

While she hesitated, Zeref moved past her, a book appearing in his hands. He flipped it open, and as he did so, the pages began to glow and then the book transformed into a smoky, monkey-like creature with eyes that glowed faintly red. It looked kind of creepy, and Lucy edged away from it.

"Bring me any books you see that might talk about angels," he told it.

The creature acknowledged the instruction with a nod and preceded him down the lane of shelves.

Well, Lucy had to admit that a monkey, creepy or not, was a good choice under the circumstances. These bookshelves felt like they stood half a mile high.

A tremor ran through the wooden floorboards and both her companions went still, listening intently. The monkey turned its unblinking stare towards the ceiling, lost in the shadows of distance. Lucy froze, her heart pounding in her chest. Sometimes, it was disturbing how realistic this game was.

"What was that?" Lucy asked.

"Something's coming," Natsu said, taking a fighting stance. "Hard to say what though. Probably something beginning with the letter "a". You should summon a spirit or something to protect yourself. And the more eyes and ears we have here the better."

"Oh, um, right."

They were joined shortly by a young woman with tiny, curled ram's horns poking out from her pink hair. And she materialized just in time to catch a hail of arrows from above with a fluffy cloud of dense, pink cotton. Aries wasn't especially powerful, but her skills could be useful and her attacks also weren't likely to destroy any books.

Only a second later, a massive alligator lunged up through the floorboards as though the wood had the consistency of water, jaws snapping. Its scales were brown and patterned like wood chips, and the deep browl in its throat reverberated in the air around them. His companions were behind him, so instead of dodging, Natsu braced his feet and caught the oncoming attack, wresting with the aligator for a moment before throwing it back. The reptile struck the floor on its back and lay still for a second before its body melted back into the ground.

When the giant, armored ants dropped from the ceiling behind them, Lucy started wishing that she'd gone with Gray and Erza instead.

.

Zeref woke to the sound of a cell phone ringing—his, he realized, recognizing the ring tone. Natsu was still asleep and half sprawled on top of him, but he managed to squirm free enough to reach out and retrieve the blaring device from the nightstand. He let his head drop back onto the pillow and placed the phone to his ear.

"Hello?"

"Hi," Wendy's cheerful but slightly uncertain voice came through the receiver.

Zeref woke up a bit more, wondering why she was calling him at this hour. Normally, their friends called Natsu.

"Do you need help with something?" he asked, hazarding a guess.

"No, I... Has Natsu told you about my Christmas party?"

"He's mentioned it, yes."

She sounded relieved when she said, "Oh, that's good. Anyway, I wanted to call and invite you personally. I really do think it would be wonderful if both of you come. And I've heard a lot about your chocolate cake."

Zeref blinked bleerily at the face of his alarm clock. The letters were still wiggling around in his vision.

"My chocolate cake?"

"Natsu's always raving about it, didn't you know? The whole class wants to try one now."

His somewhat dazed, early morning mind tried to imagine how many cakes he would have to bake to serve their entire class. They weren't an especially large cohort, but he wouldd still be baking for days. There was no way their tiny studio kitchen could handle the demand.

"Are you sure you want chocolate cake? It's a Christmas party. Perhaps ice cream cake from that ice cream parlor you're always visiting would be more fitting."

"There'll be ice cream, but chocolate is always a favorite no matter the occasion."

She trailed off, coughed, then said more softly, "So that's it. I wanted to invite you and make sure you knew that you're welcome to join us if you like."

Despite the drowsiness, Zeref understood what she was trying to do. She wanted him to understand that her invitation had been sincere, and that sincerety extended to Zeref's invitation. Yes, she was one of Natsu's many friends, but she was one of Zeref's friends too, and she wanted him to remember that.

"Thank you, Wendy. I'll... call you back when I make up my mind."

"Okay. Um, tell Natsu I said hi."

After she hung up, Zeref set the phone back on the nightstand and lay for awhile staring up at the ceiling but not really seeing it. Every now and then, he still felt like he was dreaming when he realized that he really did have good friends. Natsu teased him about it sometimes, but it wasn't necessarily a bad thing. At least it meant that he never took the people in his life for granted.

Natsu grumbled something in his sleep and tightened his hold on him. It didn't look like he'd be waking anytime soon. Zeref closed his eyes and let out a soft sigh. Well, it was the holidays so there wasn't really anything that needed doing. He was perfectly content with going back to sleep until Natsu woke up and decided to let him go.

* * *

 **TBC...**

* * *

 **.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer** : I do not own Fairy Tail.

 **Pairing(s)** : Natsu Dragneal x Zeref (pre-established, not incest)

 **WARNINGS: Slight AU ,** **Shounan ai (boy/boy pairing), you have been warned**

* * *

 **In Zeroes and Ones**

 **By V. Shalyr**

* * *

 **Part Two**

The climb up to the Plateau of Falling Stars looked more dangerous than it actually was—a little like a high level ropes course formed from various outcroppings of rock and a sprawling, dark brown vine that all seemed to be part of the same plant. With a bit of cooperation, they all made it to the plateau with no problems.

"So to make a Star Broach," Lucy said, squinting up towards the evening sky, "we've got to bring the craftsman a shooting star?"

Erza nodded.

"That's what people said."

All of them looked up at the sky. They certainly had an excellent view of the stars from this vantage point, but none of them were moving.

Lucy frowned. "Are we sure this is the right place?"

"It doesn't look like we can go any higher," Gray said, turning to survey the plateau. "Maybe there's something else we have to do."

The five of them scoured the area, and sure enough, they located several lines of text carved into the sheer rock face that rose towards the mountain's peak.

"If you wish to catch a shooting star," Lucy read aloud. "No need to run, they won't fall far. But to summon such hope, many voices must first, invoke old traditions—but in reverse."

Silence descended upon the group as they contemplated the somewhat cryptic rhyme.

"Old traditions," Gray said finally. "Do you think it's talking about wishing on shooting stars?"

"That seems the most plausible," Erza agreed. "Unless any of you know any other common superstitions around shooting stars."

None of them did.

"But in reverse," Zeref murmured, reading the script over one more time. "So then... instead of wishing on a shooting star, we make a wish... and a star will fall?"

As one, they looked up. The stars were still firmly stuck to the firmament.

"Well, it's worth a try," Natsu said. "And I'm guessing we all have to make one, since it wants "many voices"."

Make a wish... Zeref glanced at Natsu and then at the members of their new team, each of them preoccupied with what to wish for. He wasn't in the habit of making wishes, or at least not ones that he had any faith in of coming true. In his world, wishes had always been little more than passing, wistful regrets. It had been a long time since he had last allowed himself to really hope for anything.

"Do you think we have to say it out loud?" Gray asked, frowning at the inscription in the wall.

"I think so," Lucy said. "I mean, it does say voices."

Erza nodded sagely.

"My guess is that this is their way of getting us to share a bit more about ourselves, to get to know each other a little better."

That made sense. It explained why this quest could only be completed by groups.

There was a pause and then Erza cleard her throat.

"I shall go first then. My wish is that our guild will become the best wizard guild in Fiore."

"I'll second that," Natsu said, a smirk finding its way onto his lips. "And all of us are going to make that happen together."

Gray shrugged.

"It doesn't really have anything to do with this game, but I wish... that I'll be able to go back and see my elementary school homeroom teacher again. I want to know that she's doing well, and to show her that I've grown up."

Grown up the way she hoped he would, but that part went unsaid.

Zeref only really had one wish, and it didn't have anything to do with the game either. He could have made something up, he supposed, but it seemed to defeat the purpose here not to be sincere.

"I wish that Natsu will always be with me."

His partner shot him a look he couldn't quite decipher at that and Zeref dropped his gaze.

Lucy straightened her shoulders and added her two cents.

"I wish that all of us will become good friends, the kind that really support one another, and that this guild will be a place for great memories."

This time, when they looked up, a single point of white light detached itself from the sky. They expected it to come quickly and prepared themselves to make a grab for it, but instead, it drifted gently down to the plateau as though it were no heavier than a feather. Lucy was the closest and she held out her cupped hands, holding her breath as she watched the glowing sphere come to rest lightly in her palm.

That was one down. Two more to go.

Natsu held his partner back for a moment as the others started back down the mountain.

"You know, that's not something you have to wish for."

Zeref looked away.

"Maybe not. But it's not always up to us."

Natsu shook his head and pulled him after him towards the makeshift vine ladder leading down.

"If you want to be pesimistic about it, but... just don't worry so much about that, okay? It's hard to be happy if you spend too much time worrying about being sad later."

"I'll try."

.

Natsu wasn't sure exactly when he'd realized that he cared for his quiet, dark-haired friend in more than a friendly way. Perhaps it had been when a girl in their high school math class had asked him if he had anyone he liked, and he found himself thinking about Zeref and the last time he'd seen him smile even while he told her "no". He spent a total of half a day wondering if this was strange and taking another look at the few girls that he had thought attractive in passing, then decided that he really didn't care. He hadn't been especially interested then in pursuing a romantic relationship anyway, more caught up in food and fighting. Maybe that made him a bit odd too, but the point was that it had occurred to him that it was a future possibility. Zeref had never shown any interest in anyone either, not that people hadn't been interested—both girls and guys. Aside from the fact that he had rather pleasant features for a boy, his eccentricities tended to either fascinate or repel people, and then there had been that crazy stalker girl their junior year. That had only made Zeref more paranoid than he already was, and he'd all but moved into Natsu's room at the orphanage after she broke into his room in his absence—the older kids didn't all get their own, so no one had said a word about the sudden room availability. They'd ended up getting a restraining order, and soon after, her parents—a local elementary school teacher and a businessman who was all too often out of town—had transferred her to another school.

In any case, the point was that Natsu had decided he could afford to wait and see how things progressed before acting on any of his feelings. Besides, for as long as he'd known him, Zeref had shied away from physical contact with anyone. Unfortunately, this included Natsu. So the only thing he did change once he'd come to these realizations was that he deliberately began to touch him more often—an arm around the shoulders, a clap on the back, an occasional embrace—little things here and there. Gradually, he'd hoped Zeref would come to be okay with it from him. And he had, if slowly. It helped that, for whatever reason, Natsu's presence seemed to make him feel safe.

It made Natsu happy, although he didn't say anything about it. He liked the relaxed contentment that hung around him when Natsu was around, liked the serious and sometimes puzzled way he thought about the things Natsu said or did, liked that the other shared things with him that he'd never told anyone else... Liked that the smile he got was different from the smiles—however rare—Zeref gave to other people. Maybe it was a selfish thing, he wasn't sure and didn't especially care, but Natsu liked that there was some part of his friend that was his and his only.

The dark-haired boy was completely and utterly devoted to the people he cared about, and Natsu was determined to be at the top of that list.

Obviously, Zeref wasn't stupid, and he might have noticed what Natsu was up to, except that he looked at the world in a very different, highly intellectual and slightly detached way and so hadn't given it any thought—not until years later when Natsu had him pressed against the wall outside a movie theatre and he found himself completely comfortable with their proximity. Then it had been bemusing to look back and realize how this had all happened.

" _I think... that I should thank you,_ " he'd told Natsu a couple days later, after he'd gone back through the past couple years and put all the pieces together in his head.

" _What for?"_

" _For being so patient with me."_

 _Natsu had never been known for his patience. For that matter, he wasn't known for being subtle or sneaky either._

 _Natsu only shrugged before dragging him out to dinner at the new restaurant that had opened up across the street from the university concert hall._

And that was the last thing either of them said on the matter.

Theirs was a stable, comfortable sort of relationship. Natsu knew people who liked lots of excitement and drama in their love lives, but personally, he had plenty of both in the rest of his life already. He much preferred one person that he could have fun with and rely on, someone he wouldn't end up fighting with all the time and who would listen to what he had to say even when he was being foolish or brash—which he could admit to himself that he often was. At the end of the day, both of them knew that the other would always be there for them, and somehow, that made everything in life a little easier. A little brighter.

Now and then, Natsu wondered why Zeref trusted him so completely when he found it so difficult to trust anyone else.

When he had asked him, Zeref had said, " _Because I know you're not that kind of person. You always act on your beliefs and speak your mind even when it's not something other people want to hear. I know that you would never hurt me on purpose and that you won't hide things from me_."

It was a little embarrassing to hear how highly his partner thought of him, but it pleased him too.

It was almost funny, although not in a particularly funny way, how much Zeref needed him to know that he trusted him. Perhaps the dark-haired boy was too accustomed to being misunderstood. Unlike Natsu, he was the kind of person who hid things and kept things to himself, and so it was extremely important to him that Natsu knew he wouldn't intentionally keep secrets from him. And that if he did sometimes keep things to himself, it was not out of a lack of trust.

Natsu put it down as one of his partner's many small eccentricities, one of the good, not self-destructive ones.

To their credit, their new teammates hardly reacted at all to the discovery that the two boys were a couple. They were curious, but refrained from asking them too much about it, doing their best to respect their privacy.

Natsu appreciated their efforts, mostly because it made Zeref that much more comfortable with them. It might not have been obvious to anyone else, but Natsu observed a marked decrease in his partner's reluctance to finish the side job they'd accepted and head over to the forest clearing where they had all agreed to meet.

"We sent her a message by dove earlier," Erza said, turning in a slow circle to survey the gigantic trees all around them. It was some truly splendid scenery, bathed in gold and green from the sunlight that filtered through the foliage high, high overhead. The thick moss under their feet muffled their footsteps and added a gentle hush to the sounds of the birds and insects that gave the place a slightly detached and tranquil atmosphere.

"Any idea what kind of reply we're expecting?" Gray asked, eyeing the patches of deep shadow that lay here and there amidst the thriving vegetation.

Lucy started to reply, but Natsu interrupted her.

"Something's coming."

They followed the direction of his gaze to a shaft of light just inside the boundaries of the clearing. The air seemed to ripple and glitter with fragments of gold, and then abruptly, where there had been only empty space stood a woman even taller than Erza. Her long dress fell in an elegant waterfall of greens and blues to the forest floor, and she wore white and pale gold flowers woven through her brown hair.

"Welcome to my forest. Are you the travelers who sought an audience with me?"

"We are," Erza said, taking a step forward and offering her a polite bow. "We heard that you were in need of assistance."

"I am," the woman replied, regarding the group with her head tilted slightly to one side. "However, I asked for at least six. You number only five."

"My apologies for that, but we believe the five of us will be enough."

"You should be wary of overconfidence," the woman said, but she didn't seem offended by the sentiment. Once again, her golden eyes swept over the gathered players then her regal features grew tight and grim. "All right then. Four days ago, something came from the mountains in the west and hass been destroying my forest. I would deal with it myself, but for some reason, I am unable to access that area of my domain. Your task is to drive out the intruders."

The mountains west of this forest... Wait, Natsu knew the place she was talking about. He and Zeref had gone there not so long ago, and Elfman had told them rumors about a strange new monster. He glanced over at his partner and found him looking back with a slight frown, very likely having thought of the same thing. Somehow, they doubted it was a coincidence.

.

The many beasts that dwelled in the forest didn't seem to understand that they were on the queen's business. Or maybe they were all just part of the quest. Whatever the case, the moment they started making their way west, things began to attack them—bears, boars, giant snakes, and even a tremendous centipede.

"Natsu really likes fighting, doesn't he?" Lucy asked, somewhat taken aback by the violent enthusiasm with which he threw himself into the business of carving a path forward.

Zeref nodded, flipping through one of his many spell books in search of the page he wanted.

Natsu had gotten into so many fights in high school that he'd almost been expelled, especially after he'd gotten into the bad graces of his math teacher. One of Natsu's altercations had been with her son, and even though both sides had been at fault, well... she was the boy's mother. Problem was, fighting wasn't just something he liked, it was the main way he dealt with frustration. Finally, Zeref had intervened.

" _Why should I apologize to her? It's not like she was the one I punched."_

" _You broke her son's nose. She's very angry about it."_

" _He deserved it. And you don't see him apologizing to anyone—or being called into the office about it. Just because the grownups think he's the "good" one."_

" _But you've already proved your point to him. Does it matter what the teachers think of him?"_

" _It just pisses me off."_

Zeref hadn't known what to say to that. He understood the sentiment and shared it to some extent. He just didn't feel the need to express it in quite the same way. In the grand scheme of things, one high school boy being a spoiled brat was not worth his time.

" _I heard that she wants to expel you, and it doesn't help that you're failing her class. I'm going to go talk to her. Maybe I can help you get through her tests or something. Most of the teachers will at least listen to what I have to say, but nothing I say is going to mean anything if you don't at least tell her you're sorry."_

" _..."_

" _Natsu... Please don't leave me alone at school."_

" _...Fine, I'll go see her tomorrow."_

" _Thank you."_

After that, Natsu had listened to his friend's other advice and joined the martial arts club where he could channel his restless energy into something that wouldn't get him into so much trouble. The competitions gave him a goal to strive for, and matters had improved. Everyone had something that they were talented at, if only they had the opportunity to discover it.

Locating the spell he wanted, Zeref murmured the incantation and a diagram flared into life just above the open pages. He inspected the many labeled lights scattered across it then raised his voice, "Natsu, this path forks up ahead. There's something peculiar towards the right, and that's also in the direction of the canyon."

"Got it. To the right!"

The Dragon Mage charged forward, vanishing around a stand of trees. Zeref and the others followed at a much more sedate pace as he continued to scour the schematics for information. There was something strange about the creature signatures up ahead. Normally, this particular surveillance spell mapped out the types and levels of the monsters within a two-mile radius of him, but the creatures scattered throughout the western region of the forest had no level markings plus an additional, twisting arrow symbol he'd never seen before.

The deeper they ventured into the cut-off area, the more evidence they saw of distress. The dead trees began to outnumber the live ones, and the symphony of birdsong petered out entirely. It was the change in the atmosphere that really stood out though. The sunlight that had once seemed warm now felt overly bright and harsh. The spaces and shadows beneath the canopy grew oppressive without visibly having changed.

And then, thunderously loud in the deathly quiet, something behind them growled.

.

The problem with fighting as a large team, Zeref decided, was that everything suddenly became way more chaotic. Or maybe he just wasn't used to it yet. It didn't help that the wolves outnumbered them by what felt like a hundred to one, their bristling coats a bright, bright red that reminded him disturbingly of fresh blood. Upon first encounter, the beasts had seemed strong but not incredibly so. Perhaps that was why they hadn't been worried at first, and how they hadn't noticed being driven slowly into the narrow pass.

"What is it with these things?" Gray asked of no one in particular, catching one wolf in a shower of dagger-sharp ice shards. "It's like they just won't stay dead."

That was a good way of putting it. Zeref figured that was probably what the twisting arrows on his spell diagram had meant. No matter how much damage these creatures took, they seemed able to resurrect themselves in a matter of seconds.

"But there has to be a way to beat them," Natsu said, reducing a leaping wolf to ashes only to have those ashes swirl and coalesce once more into a hairy, snarling shape. "Everything has a weakness. There's no such thing as a monster that can't be defeated."

"Do you think maybe they're like vampires?" Lucy asked, the wolves' bloody fur putting her in mind of haunting stories of the undead.

Gray snorted.

"Any of you have a cross or garlic on you?"

"Don't be ridiculous," Erza said, cutting down another wolf with a swing of her sword then grimacing when the creature stitched itself back together and lunged for her again. "My guess is that there is some kind of energy source behind them that we have to find and destroy. I'm sure I came across a boss monster with similar abilities before. We need to pull back and regroup. Come up with a different strategy."

The others agreed, but the crimson wolves weren't about to let them go that easily.

The pack snapped at their heels as they scrambled up the rocky ravine wall. An echoing howl drew their startled eyes to the top where more wolves had begun to gather.

"How many of these creatures are there?" Lucy asked, voice squeaking with nervous tension.

Zeref looked back down at the wolves below then at Natsu. His partner nodded and shouted at the others.

"Get up as high as you can without letting those ones up there get you and just hang on until we say so."

"What are you planning to do?" Erza asked.

Her question was answered when Zeref dropped back down onto the ravine floor. As soon as his feet touched the ground, black mist unraveled around him, flowing outward in a quickly expanding dome. It was eerily silent, and Lucy watched with some trepidation as the vegetation clinging to the rocks just below her withered and died. When the fog finally cleared, a good portion of the wolves below had vanished, and the ones that remained hung back warily.

"Come on, we should hurry," Natsu said, gesturing for the rest of their teammates to join them. "These things can't be killed, remember? They won't stay gone for long."

The rest of their team hesitated for only a moment before hurrying after them and back towards safer territory.

"Talk about a crazy powerful spell," Gray said, shaking his head. "Not very team friendly though."

"That's putting it mildly, Erza said.

She sheathed her sword and frowned back in the direction they had come. It bothered her a little that they had essentially run away even though it had been a tactical retreat. But then good strategy meant knowing when to back down as well as when to forge onward, and she felt responsible for the survival of everyone in the group.

"You said you'd come across other monsters that couldn't be killed," Natsu said, turning to face her. "Can you tell us more about it?"

"Yes, let me think." Erza sat down on the grass, her brow furrowed. "It was about a year ago, part of that underground labyrinth special event. One of the gateway chambers held a number of iron knights that reformed no matter how much damage they took. I took awhile, but I finally realized that there was one knight in particular that looked and reacted a bit differently from the others. It put more care into avoiding my attacks for one thing. Once I defeated it, all the other knights disappeared."

Lucy sat down as well, leaning against the base of a mossy tree trunk.

"So that's what you meant by a boss monster. Hey, that diagramming spell you used earlier. Can it help us find the monster we want?"

Zeref took the book back out and opened it.

"I suppose it is worth a try, although exceptionally powerful monsters often do not show up."

He and Natsu had learned that the hard way shortly after he'd first acquired the spell. Come to think of it, that was the last time both their characters had been killed by the same monster.

"It also has a limited range, so we will still have to visit different points throughout the area and prevent ourselves from being killed long enough for me to run a thorough reading."

Which meant they had better get started because there was a heck of a lot of ground to cover.

.

They ate out that night at a cozy, home-style restaurant not far from the grocery store they needed to visit later. After they placed their orders, Zeref found himself staring at his cell phone, which he had placed beside his silverware. Across from him, Natsu dug into the fresh bread that the waiter had placed between them.

They had met several of their current friends while out together on similar occasions—what other people might have called "dates"; they didn't call them anything because neither felt the need to have a specific name for spending time together. They were together so much of the time that it would have felt strange anyway.

Wendy had been at a festival with her friends and wandered into the area with all the game booths. Natsu had been failing horribly at catching goldfish with those flimsy paper nets while Zeref watched with a frown of concentration on his face and a white stuffed animal cat in his arms that they had won at a different stall. It was the stuffed animal that had drawn her attention.

" _Um, could you tell me where you got that?"_

 _The dark-haired boy turned to look at her, bewildered until he noted the direction of her gaze._

" _There is a ring toss game next to the stand selling roasted corn," he said after some thought._

 _The girl's eyes brightened and she tucked a few strands of long, navy hair behind her ear in an absentminded gesture._

" _I wonder if I'll be able to get one. I have a cat at home, but I wasn't able to bring her to school with me since they don't allow pets in the dorms. She's white too. It kind of reminds me of her."_

Zeref had looked down at the stuffed animal in question and then mutely passed it over to her. It wasn't like either of them had any particular fondness for stuffed animals. At that point, Natsu had gotten into a fight with one of the other customers and Zeref had excused himself to try and calm things down, leaving Wendy standing with the stuffed animal in her arms and a bemused expression on her face.

" _Natsu's easier to talk to than you are_ ," she had told him a lot later, after they had all run into each other again in one of the university dining halls. " _But you know, that first time I saw the two of you, I thought you looked like a really nice person. I mean, I'm not saying that you're not because you are, but... I'm sure that if you just relaxed more, people wouldn't feel like you were so distant and hard to get along with_."

She'd flushed, uncomfortable with giving advice to someone everyone said was a genius. But then she'd laughed and added, " _Like Natsu. He manages to get along with most people, and he looks like the kind of person who gets into street fights and ends up being arrested for destruction of public property_."

Zeref had blinked and taken a sip of his coffee, wondering if he should tell her that that had almost happened once.

So Zeref looked more approachable, did he? At least to people who didn't know them.

That conversation had still been very much on his mind when a young man came up to him after his physics class last spring. He'd been surprised since he had a reputation for being standoffish, but then perhaps Wendy had a point after all. The stranger's eyes had seemed overly bright with nervousness and excitement behind his rectangular glasses, and he soon understood why.

" _You would like me to ask Natsu if he would help you and your friends promote a new game... which is played on new hover boards that you designed?"_

" _That's right. You two are close, right? He's popular and he's good at sports, so we thought that if he helped, it would be easier to get everyone else on board. You have no idea how hard it is to promote a new invention when you're basically a nobody."_

 _Zeref couldn't help a faintly amused smile._

" _I'm sorry, but that's not going to happen."_

 _The stranger looked a bit hurt._

" _Why not?"_

" _You probably didn't know this since you had to ask, but Natsu hates vehicles of all kinds. They make him ill. I doubt he could stay on a hover board, let alone participate in any kind of sport on one."_

" _Oh." The man deflated. "I guess that would be a problem. I wouldn't have thought an athlete would get motion sick."_

 _Zeref shrugged. Apparently, athletic talent and motion sickness were not related. He had to admit that he too found the severity of Natsu's motion sickness to be mystifying. Back in middle school, some of the other kids had mocked him for it—until Natsu beat the inclination out of them._

Natsu had laughed when he'd told him about both of these encounters, ruffled his hair and said, " _She's right, you know. You are a nice person, and you look it too. But you don't let most people get close enough to realize that_."

A nice person. Zeref had never thought of himself as a "nice" person. He wasn't used to thinking about himself as much of anything other than a little strange. A little at odds with the rest of society. For awhile in middle school, he'd worked desperately hard to fit in only to fail miserably and eventually give up. From Natsu, he had learned that, although it was good to try now and then, it was also okay just to be himself, even if that "self" was sometimes too gloomy and straightforward and insightful for most people to feel comfortable with. It was okay to be one of the few people who, when asked how he was doing, would not always say "fine".

That blunt honesty was something he and Natsu had in common, although Natsu shared his opinions more freely. People like Wendy who stuck around long enough to really get to know both of them knew not to take him too seriously, Zeref seldom meant anything offensive by his comments, even when he said things that made them initially uncomfortable. He was just trying to make sense of people and social situations that confused him.

"Hey, Earth to Zeref, the food's here."

He shook his head to clear it and looked down, realizing that Natsu was right. While he'd been spacing out, a steaming plate of tilapia and assorted vegetables had materialized under his nose.

Natsu gave him a somewhat amused look over his own plate of steak, broccoli, and mashed potatoes. He was pretty sure he knew what Zeref was thinking about. It was kind of endearing—but also sometimes exasperating—how his partner agonized over every decision that he had to make. No wonder he had such poor stress management skills.

Rather than comment on this, Natsu decided to change the subject. "The weather forecast said it's going to snow this year."

Dark eyes blinked and came back into focus.

"Really?"

They didn't get to see snow all that often.

"Well, if the forecast is right anyway."

"Will we have to cancel our camping trip?"

"I don't think so, but I guess we'll have to keep an eye on it just in case."

Zeref nodded and slowly began to eat. Wait, that reminded him, "There's a gingerbread house contest and exhibit at the cultural center tomorrow. There's an entry fee, but it's not too bad."

Natsu raised his eyebrows.

"You want to go? You know it's going to be crowded."

"I know, but the prize for second place in the contest is a free meal for two people at that new seafood buffet. It's sponsoring the event."

That certainly piqued Natsu's interest. But, "Uh, doesn't that mean we have to somehow manage to get second place?"

It actually would have been easier to try for first. How did you go about planning to be one less than the best?

"I thought it was worth a try. Neither of us have ever built a gingerbread house before, so our chances of getting first place are pretty low."

Natsu grinned.

"I like a good challenge. We can go after we solve the problem of those wolves. So what's the first place prize anyway?"

Zeref thought for a moment.

"I can't remember. I didn't think it was very interesting."

Natsu laughed and returned to systematically devouring his dinner, although he kept an eye on his partner to make sure he actually ate his fish instead of drifting off again.

At first glance, Zeref often struck people as the more mature and sensible one, and as far as being calm and logical went, that was possibly true. But in reality, for the most part, Natsu was the one that took care of the both of them. Zeref was great at academics and managing their finances and things like that, but Natsu was better at living in general.

Those people didn't see the depth of emotion that lay behind Zeref's calm, contemplative eyes. They didn't see the times when Natsu came home to find his partner trying to drown himself in the shower or huddled in a corner of their room in the dark. It didn't happen that often anymore, thankfully, but it was still a work in progress. Natsu had tried to get him to see a psychiatrist for depression once, but even he hadn't been able to convince him to do so. As Zeref had reasoned, he could hardly bring himself to talk with Natsu about it. There was no way he was going to talk about it with a total stranger, which really meant that Natsu had to help him deal with it himself—even if all he _could_ do was be there, hold him, and force him to eat enough so that he wouldn't starve.

The last really serious episode had been during their first semester. Zeref had been so despondent after one of his history classes that Natsu had gone to talk to his professor. Turned out the course was doing a unit on genocide, and they'd watched a documentary that day. After some serious discussion, Natsu had arranged for him to be dropped from that class even though the drop deadline had already passed. To make up for the lost units, Natsu enrolled him in his own introductory chemistry class since Zeref had read all of his textbooks already anyway. He would have no trouble catching up.

Funny really. The one time Natsu voluntarily went to talk to a teacher, and it was his partner's teacher instead of his own.

Across from him, Zeref took a careful bite of the fish then reached for the pepper. Around them, the murmur of other diners melded with the soft words of the music playing in the background, loud enough to hear but not quite loud enough to decipher.

It looked like it was going to be a peaceful evening.

.

When they saw the wolf, it was immediately apparent that it was the one they were looking for. Technically, it looked exactly the same as all the other crimson wolves—except for one, not so small characteristic.

"Oh my god." Lucy breathed the words out in a shocked whisper. "It could swallow all of us in one bite. Without chewing!"

On the other side of the ridge where they were currently hiding, the massive beast lay beside the skeletal remains of its last meal, its body a veritable mountain of coarse, blood red fur. When it yawned, it displayed rows of white teeth as long as Erza's sword blade.

"I say we go for it," Natsu said, grinning madly in a way that showed off his own fangs. "That's the whole reason we're here, right?"

"But we don't know what kinds of abilities it has," Gray countered, frowning.

"You scared?"

"No, I'm just saying we need to be careful."

"Regardless," Erza cut in, straightening and switching her armor to one that had wings. "We won't find out until we engage it in battle."

Zeref hung back to watch as Natsu and Erza charged followed shortly by Gray. He doubted it was going to be as simple as overpowering it.

Beside him, Lucy muttered something about insane teammates then pulled out a Gate Key to summon a spirit.

However, at first, the wolf didn't seem all that impressive. Natsu's fire blasted it against the side of the mountain with a crash that shook the earth beneath their feet and caused a moderate landslide. Dust puffed up around it as it began to rise only to be slowed by the ice forming about its feet. Granted, the freezing spell didn't slow it by much, but it was long enough for Erza's sword to come slicing across its face. For a moment, Zeref wondered if he'd been wrong and it really was going to be that simple. But then the wolf shook itself and howled, and the eerie, escalating sound made the hairs rise on the back of his neck. Heedless of its wounds, the beast attacked with shocking ferocity. Its fangs and claws glowed and crackled with energy like red electricity, and the air in this part of the canyon began to distort with power. It disposed of Lucy's bull with one chomp of its immense jaws, and plowed through Gray's ice shards like they were made of paper.

At this point, Zeref decided that he had better join the effort. His first spell sent the wolf reeling back, but after that, matters only got worse.

None of them could remember ever fighting a battle this tough, and the most startling part of it all was that they were losing. It was a difficult fact to admit, however, and so by the time they finally chose to retreat, every last one of them was battered, exhausted, and completely out of recovery items.

"That was insane," Natsu said, flopping onto the forest floor next to his partner. "I can't believe we couldn't beat it."

Lucy groaned and put her arm over her eyes where she was lying on her own patch of moss.

"We have to be going about this the wrong way, we just have to."

Zeref closed his eyes and replayed the battle in his mind. Where had they gone wrong?

"Did any of you get the feeling," Gray asked slowly from the other side of the clearing, squinting at the sky through the leaves, "that it kept getting stronger?"

There was a ponderous silence and then Erza said, "Yes, I felt that way too. I'm positive that our first attack dealt far more damage than our later ones even though the spells we used later were more powerful."

There was another long pause then Zeref said, "I may have a theory."

The others waited patiently for him to organize his thoughts and continue.

"I think... that it got stronger... because we got stronger. Perhaps its level and power adjust to match the level and power of the player its fighting."

The rest of the team considered this. It... would make sense.

"So," Natsu said after a moment's contemplation, "the reason it seemed so weak at first was because it wasn't actually facing any of us yet."

"That's my theory, yes."

Another long pause then, "I don't think I like what you're saying we have to do."

"I didn't think you would, but it's very likely the only way to win."

"It feels cowardly."

"Clue the rest of us in on what you're talking about, would you?" Gray interrupted them.

"I think I know," Erza said, sitting up. "We need something weak to distract it while the rest of us attack it all together from behind. We have to destroy it before it can officially face us."

"Something weak, huh?" Lucy murmured, mostly to herself. And then abruptly, a bright smile broke out across her face. "I think I have just the thing."

When the strange little, bald-looking creature tottered out in front of it, the giant wolf was... understandably bewildered and maybe just a little offended.

It never knew what hit it.

Once they figured out the trick of it, winning turned out to be pretty easy after all. It was almost anticlimactic, although the destruction left in the wake of the fighting was quite impressive.

Maybe even disturbingly so.

An hour later found them back in the Golden Apple Orchard.

"Right," Natsu said, cracking his knuckles. "So how many did we need for that potion?"

Zeref consulted his notes.

"Thirty."

Gray's eyes flicked up to count the number of apples on the nearby trees.

"Leave it to me. This should be easy with my magic."

"No way you're getting all the fun," Natsu retorted, grabbing his partner and heading off through the orchard. "Come on. Just wait. We'll get all thirty of them."

Lucy sighed, taking out her keys. "Do they have to be so competitive all the time?"

But she was talking to empty air. Erza had already leapt up into the nearest tree.

Of course, she really shouldn't have expected any different.

Sometimes, she thought that she and Zeref were the only sane ones.

They ended up with sixty-eight golden apples, which they took to the potion maker at the Magnolia Hospital.

This had been Lucy's idea. After they'd made sure the wolves were truly gone, she'd looked around at all the dead and splintered trees and suggested that they attempt to do something about them before seeking out the Forest Queen again.

That line of inquiry had taken them to the hospital and a potion maker who could brew a restorative that might work. Once the elixir had been made and returned to them, they gated back to the forest. Each of them took one of the flasks of clear yellow liquid and spread out, carefully sprinkling the potion over the decimated land. Where the droplets fell, the scorched and barren earth began to turn green, and where the withered remains of trees stood, new trees began to sprout. All of them breathed a sigh of relief when they finally finished.

The sound of someone clapping made them all jump and turn towards one of the newly revived groves. The queen of the forest smiled at them, and the expression was far more genuine than before.

"Very well done."

"Sorry," Lucy said, feeling a bit embarrassed, "but it looks like it'll take some time for everything to grow back the way it was."

"No need to worry. Because of all of you, it will grow back and that's what matters to me. You did more than I originally asked of you, and for that, you can ask one thing of me."

"Oh, um..." Lucy glanced around at her friends, but they were all looking at her. "Well, we were sort of hoping you'd have something called a Fairy Cloak...?"

* * *

 **TBC...**

* * *

 **.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer** : I do not own Fairy Tail.

 **Pairing(s)** : Natsu Dragneal x Zeref (pre-established, not incest)

 **WARNINGS: Slight AU ,** **Shounan ai (boy/boy pairing), mentions of sex, you have been warned**

* * *

 **In Zeroes and Ones**

 **By V. Shalyr**

* * *

 **Part Three**

It was the little acts of compassion that stood out most to Zeref when he looked back on the years since the orphanage had taken him in.

First, there had been Makarov, the old man who ran the place, working hard to ensure that the children who came to him would have a future. He told them often that they were all part of his family, and Zeref had learned over time that he really meant those words from the bottom of his heart. After all the violence he'd seen, it had come as... a surprise. Not a good one or a bad one—not at first. It had taken him awhile to truly accept and appreciate it.

Then there had been the teacher who volunteered at the orphanage. She had noticed him off by himself on the swing set and invited him to join her class. He had done so to be polite, but really, there had been nothing new for him in her classes. It only took two class periods for her to realize this, however, and she'd taken it upon herself to bring him other books. More advanced ones, and even some that she herself had trouble understanding. Some grownups might have been annoyed or upset at being outdone by a mere child, but that teacher had been happy for him. He hadn't told her then—hadn't known how to say the words—that she had been the first person who had been happy for his sake about anything. He hadn't known before that a person could be happy because of something he did.

After that, there had been several other, similar occurrences—just little things. Small gestures of kindness or thoughtfulness that slowly put back together the shattered fragments of his perceptions of the world.

And, of course, there had been Natsu.

It was hard for him to articulate exactly what it had been about the other boy that drew Zeref to him. Or perhaps it would have been more accurate to say that it was Natsu who had been drawn to Zeref. The wild-haired child had begun seeking him out after their first encounter in the library. He asked him questions—about the books he read, the things he liked, where he was from, if he wanted to play a game—and when Zeref didn't respond, he'd just sat and watched him for awhile until the dark-haired boy grew uncomfortable and gave him his answers.

Zeref hadn't spent much time around people his own age, and Natsu had confused him. How long had it taken him to realize that the other boy wanted to be his friend? Probably far longer than was reasonable for someone who was supposed to be so intelligent. Friendship had been something foreign to him, and once Natsu had figured this out, he'd sat him down and explained the concept to him. Kind of a funny way to learn about friendship, he supposed. But Natsu turned out to be a very good teacher in that regard, and Zeref had found that there was a large part of himself that very much wanted to care about other people. A part of himself that had always cared and cared deeply—but been terribly afraid to.

Looking back on the whole thing now made Zeref smile. To think the simple acts of children could change a life so drastically.

"You're too young to be getting all nostalgic."

Natsu's voice cut into his recollections and he lifted his gaze from the maps he'd been committing to memory. Natsu zipped up his backpack, glanced around to see if he'd forgotten anything, then came over to join him at the kitchen counter.

"Well?"

"The lake should be pretty easy to get to," Zeref said, continuing to stir the bubbling contents of the pot on the stove while he glanced over the map again. "We should be able to make it there by noon if we leave early. And there's actually a small town not far from it if we need anything."

"That's good to know."

Natsu moved to get bowls and utensils for them, but paused when his cell phone let out a soft beep. He picked it up and glanced at the message, and his eyebrows quirked in amusement.

"Check it out. Lucy forwarded a news article. Guess what it's about."

Zeref looked up at the screen of the cell phone that Natsu held out to him.

"It's... the gingerbread house making contest."

"And the photo's not just of any gingerbread house. It's the one we made. I wonder if that means she lives around here. Kind of cool that the newspaper chose to show ours when we didn't win anything."

Dark eyes scanned the text and a faint smile touched his lips. Maybe they hadn't placed, but it seemed their gingerbread and icing creation had struck visitors as the most... unique.

"I still think we did a great job," Natsu said, adding his two cents. "I mean, sure, it looks more like a haunted medieval castle than a cheery witch's cottage, but even the judges admitted ours was unforgettable."

"I think they said ours looked more suitable for Halloween than Christmas."

"Yeah, well, they should have put that in the rules as a criteria then."

"I believe they thought it was strongly implied."

Or blatantly obvious, to put it more directly.

Natsu scrolled further down then said, "She's asking if everyone's available tomorrow."

His partner frowned.

"We leave tomorrow morning."

"Yeah, I know. I'll send them all a message to let them know we won't have Internet access for two days."

.

It had been one of the younger kids who'd suggested they all go camping the summer before they started high school. The proposal had been received with delight by the staff and other children, but also a measure of cautious trepidation. It was the first thing he'd told anyone he wanted to do since he'd arrived at the orphanage following the accident that had taken his parents while they were camping in the mountains. The adults had been just a little confused and worried that going camping would bring back bad memories, even though it had been the kid's own idea.

Natsu had understood though. Understood that doing something his parents had loved made him feel closer to them and helped him to remember them. Natsu barely remembered his own father from before the man had just gone missing one day, and he couldn't remember his mother at all. Sometimes, he wondered what they had been like, what kinds of hobbies they might have had and what places they might have liked to go. He'd probably never know.

Plans had been set and, early on a warm summer morning, a bus had dropped the children who had wanted to go and the accompanying staff members at the start of a trail leading into an area further into the woods that was popular for campers—especially ones with minimal experience. The boy who had suggested the whole venture showed them all how to put up their tents.

Aside from the bugs and the one snake that had scared one of the kids out of his wits, they'd all had a lot of fun. They'd explored the surrounding wilderness, gone hiking through the woods and wading in the creek. One of the girls turned out to be a closet bird watcher, and she shared with them various facts about the different birds that they heard and saw. One of their chaperones used to work as a botanist, and she pointed out poisonous plants to them throughout the day as well as plants that could be used for medicine or as food.

When it was time to retire after dinner and a dessert of roasted marshmallows around the campfire,

Natsu and Zeref had opted not to sleep in their tent. Instead, they set up their sleeping bags out by the dying embers of the fire, and Zeref told him stories about the constellations as they looked up at the stars that were so clear this far from the pollution of the city.

Zeref knew all sorts of stories and was quite a decent storyteller if you could get him to open up enough. Stories that had dragons in them were Natsu's favorite, whether they were stories about greedy, evil western dragons or the powerful and respected dragon gods of the east.

That night by the remains of the campfire, Natsu had noticed some of the other children eavesdropping from the flaps of their tents. He'd grinned to himself and neglected to mention it to his friend because he didn't want Zeref to stop talking. He'd wanted the others to see that the dark-haired boy wasn't as distant and indifferent as he usually seemed, wanted them to understand that—beneath Zeref's detached and serious exterior—there was someone that they could befriend too. Someone thoughtful who felt things deeply and cared about the world.

Perhaps it was because their first excursion had generated so many pleasant memories, or perhaps they simply discovered a shared liking for the Great Outdoors. Whatever the case, hiking and camping out had become one of the two's favorite pastimes.

.

For this break, they had chosen a lake where people were allowed to fish. One of their classmates who was really into photography had recommended it as somewhere with "awesome photo ops" and a limited number of campers since it could only be reached after a long, steep trail on foot. Her description had been quite accurate, and, at the moment, their tent was the only one on the shore. The caretaker's cottage was a short ways into the woods and couldn't be seen from the lake either. A narrow, wooden pier jutted out above the tranquil water, the boards creaking softly under their shoes as they made their way to the end of it. Even though it was winter and the late afternoon sky was a bit overcast, the day was relatively warm with only a very light if slightly chilly breeze. It made them seriously doubt the forecast for later snow.

"I am reminded of that Creature of the Lake quest we did," Zeref said, surveying the picturesque scenery, a book open on his lap. Next to him, his partner had begun cracking out his fishing equipment.

Natsu snorted.

"Not exactly one of our best."

" _Creature of the Lake? Kind of a dumb name if you ask me."_

" _It does not seem very creative."_

 _Natsu held up the lure they'd been given, regarding the small, almost humanoid figure dubiously before tossing it into the water._

" _Well, here goes."_

 _Normally, fishing took patience. This kind of fishing required haste._

 _Almost as soon as the lure vanished from sight, a shadow rose towards the surface of the lake. The thing that lunged up out of the water at the end of the fishing line was large enough to swallow a person whole. Natsu and Zeref dove out of the way as it crashed through the bridge where they had been sitting, splintering the wood and sending wood chips and waterdrops spraying everywhere._

 _Creature of the Lake turned out to be a pretty good description after all because "creature" was about the only word they could come up with for it. Calling it a fish would have been an insult to fish everywhere, and calling it a monster would have made it more impressive than it actually was._

 _The fishing rod, line and all, vanished into its giant, toothless maw, but instead of fleeing, it lept for them again, its powerful tail sending a wave of water over the remaining section of the bridge and knocking both players into the lake._

 _Zeref instinctively held his breath and struggled to see through the muddy, churning lake water. For a moment, he spotted a dark hole of a mouth rushing toward him, then a clawed hand seized the back of his collar and yanked him towards the surface._

 _He and Natsu fought their way onto the steep, rocky shore followed by a strange cross between a roar and a gurgle._

 _Natsu spat out some mud, grimaced, and turned to his partner._

" _Have we got a spear or something?"_

" _I think I picked one up at the ruins."_

 _Zeref glanced through his inventory and called it out, handing it over. Natsu weighed the weapon in his hands and turned purposefully back towards the lake, its surface still roiling._

" _Right, no way we're letting it get away."_

Zeref laughed quietly at the memory, although it hadn't been very funny while it was happening—almost being eaten by a gelatinous, finned, aquatic disgrace and then having to chase it all through the muddy shallows.

Natsu's own scowl at the memory faded as he watched his partner return to reading his book. Zeref smiled a lot more these days, but laughs were still rare.

He remembered the one time Zeref had told him anything about his life before the orphanage.

" _Why does it bother you so much when people are close to you? You don't seem to be afraid or nervous about it."_

" _N, I'm not afraid. Just... uncomfortable."_

Zeref had fallen silent after that for so long that Natsu thought he wasn't going to answer the original question. But to his surprise, the dark-haired boy did.

" _I know what it's like to watch someone murder another human being. I know what it's like to feel someone bleeding to death practically right on top of you and know that you are unable to do anything to stop it. My close physical encounters with other people have been... uncomfortable."_

Put that way, "uncomfortable" suddenly seemed like a gross understatement, and Natsu decided not to ask him any more about it or where he was from or what kind of family he'd had. They were obviously bad memories. The dark-haired boy must have had some childhood. Before that, Natsu had never given much thought to why Zeref was one of the few children at the orphenage who did _not_ miss his family or previous home. And Natsu had resolved to make sure that Zeref had better memories to replace them with, and—if he did say so himself—he'd done a rather good job.

"I've been thinking about the last thing we have to find for the guild quest," Zeref said, breaking the silence. He had paused in his reading again and was looking across the lake, gaze thoughtful and unfocused.

"You mean the Angel's Prayer?"

"That's right."

"It's been on my mind too," Natsu said, contemplating the water where the fishing line disappeared. "It's strange, but the more I think about it, the more I feel like I've actually heard the name somewhere before."

"I've had the same feeling," Zeref admitted, shutting his book and setting it aside. He drew his knees up to his chest and wrapped his arms loosely around them. "I can't seem to remember where I've come across it though, but this place... this lake reminds me of it."

Natsu frowned and took a moment to inspect their surroundings more closely than he had before. There were the surrounding mountains, the higher and more distant peaks capped with white, and the surrounding woods—some of the trees still green, but many others sporting bare branches adorned with only a handful of brown and yellow leaves. His eyes lingered on these trees longer than the others then returned to the vast, calm expanse of blue-green water.

"Hey, what special events have we taken part in?"

Zeref thought for a moment.

"There was the Nightmare Labyrinth where I got that spell, the Midsummer Race across the country, the Midwinter Festival where you got your scarf, that coliseum prison event, and the Undead Ball last Halloween. That was the last one."

And what an event it had been—certainly very suitable to Halloween. Practically everything had put in an appearance over the course of the two-day haunted mansion celebration from dancing skeletons to werewolves. Actually, the werewolves and other were-creatures had been the main feature of the event, and players earned points by identifying, fighting, and capturing them to turn in to the Rune Knights, most of whom were system administrators.

It had been a very... strange event. Quite interesting for the most part, although it had been a bit disturbing how so many of the undead monsters had been so fond of the Demon Summoner. They assumed it probably had to do with the occupation—an occupational hazard, if you will.

Natsu frowned abruptly, eyes narrowing.

"Hold on, that weird mansion... there were all these paintings in the main ballroom—kind of faded and marked up, but there might have been angels on the ceiling."

Zeref closed his eyes, picturing the scene in his mind.

"I think you're right. Do you know if that area is still accessible to players?"

"It is," Natsu said, starting to grin. "I heard some wizards talking about going there to catch a ghost. Guess we should tell the others about it when we get back. It's the first lead we've had on it."

The library hadn't been much help. It just held too much information, and the clues they had were far too vague.

But that was an annoyance for another time.

Natsu inclined his head towards his partner's book. "So what are you reading? Anything good?"

"It's a collection of Asian short stories. I can read you some of the ones I like."

"Sure, let's hear them."

These camping trips were times to relax, to get away from civilization for awhile and just enjoy each other's company.

.

The first time they'd actually slept together and not just occupied the same bed had been at the beginning of their last summer break.

Up until then, Natsu hadn't done much more than kiss him, although it hadn't been for a lack of _wanting_ to. He had been reasonably sure that Zeref knew what sex _was_ , but he'd also been reasonably sure that the dark-haired boy had very little interest in it and thought about it only as something that happened to other people—at least before they'd officially gotten together. Not that that was all that surprising, since this was a person who had trouble adjusting to something as simple and innocent as a hug, so Natsu had tried his best to give him the time and space he needed to work things out in his own mind and come to terms with the idea.

Someone—Natsu couldn't remember who anymore—had thrown an "end of the year" party at his or her house. Since practically everybody they knew was attending, they'd decided that they should put in at least a token appearance before running off on their hiking and fishing trip. Besides, free food was always welcome.

Zeref had drunk rather a lot more of the wine at the party than he ordinarily would have, especially seeing as he didn't like alcohol. From across the room refilling his plate at the refreshments table, Natsu had seen him grimace at the taste of it before—for some reason—pouring himself another glass. Natsu had been confused and concerned, but it was the end of their first year and so he hadn't immediately done anything about it. Caught up in conversation with one group of classmates and then another, he hadn't been able to make it back to their table right away, but that didn't mean he wasn't watching. The third time Natsu caught sight of a full glass in front of him, however, he decided that he had better go put a stop to whatever it was Zeref thought he was doing.

" _You know you don't have to drink that, right?"_

 _Even though most of the other party goers were happily filling their own cups with the stuff._

" _I know."_

" _I didn't think you even liked wine."_

" _I don't. It tastes horrible, but it does seem to be quite effective after a fashion."_

" _Effective? For what?"_

 _When Zeref didn't provide an answer to that, Natsu pulled his partner's jacket from the back of his chair and pushed it into his hands._

" _Right, we're leaving now. Come on."_

 _His partner's thought processes could be a little difficult to follow sometimes, even for him. At least he still seemed to be thinking clearly._

 _Zeref walked more or less okay, but when he reached the rather long set of front steps, he stood so long staring down them that Natsu hoisted him onto his back and hooked his arms under Zeref's knees to stop him from falling off._

" _Jeez, this isn't like you at all. You're going to have to explain to me later why you thought this was a good idea."_

 _The dark-haired boy mumbled something incoherent, arms wrapped around his shoulders and face nuzzled in the crook of Natsu's neck. Natsu could feel his warm breath against his ear, feel the smooth skin where his clothes had slipped a little, loose as they were, and he had to make a conscious effort to ignore it all._

" _I do have a reason," the dark-haired boy said very quietly and Natsu snorted._

" _You always do, but they're not always very reasonable."_

 _There was no bite to his words though, just a sort of bemused affection. Sure, Zeref could be strange, but he was also usually fairly predictable—for someone who knew him as well as Natsu did anyway. He generally had a pattern to his logic and was more or less a creature of routine._

The party hadn't been too far from their dormitory building, and their apartment was on the second floor not too far from the stairs—Natsu never took the elevator. He didn't remember what he thought about on the rest of the trip back. What he _did_ remember was Zeref turning to him when they were both in bed and giving him a very, very tentative kiss—scarcely more than a brush of his lips.

 _Natsu took a moment to be amused by how shy and uncertain his partner still was about these things, then took over the kiss, capturing Zeref's mouth firmly with his own and moving a hand to cup the side of his face. Reassured, Zeref relaxed and let him do so, his own hands tracing up to his partner's well-muscled shoulders and then around so he could loop his arms around his neck to draw him closer—a gesture just as tentative as the kiss had been. Natsu slid the hand that had been caressing his cheek down under the open front of his partner's nightshirt along his side to his hip and followed it with his mouth, nipping his way along his partner's neck to his collarbone. The soft little sound Zeref made in response and the feel of warm, bare skin under his fingers, lips, and teeth—Natsu found it all rather intoxicating. But at about that point, Natsu realized—actually realized—that Zeref had left his nightshirt unbuttoned and that his own shirt was on the back of his desk chair because it was a warm night, and—damn it all, he wasn't all that big on self restraint, but he loved this person under him very much and so he had better stop and ask or else he wasn't going to be able to._

" _Hey, are you sure about this? I think you're a bit drunk."_

 _Natsu wasn't sure what he expected, but he certainly didn't expect Zeref's response._

 _Dark eyes looked up at him with a mixture of anxiety and amusement—a little bit hazy but still lucid. "I'm not that drunk. I was keeping track. Just do it before the effects wear off and I lose my nerve."_

 _And, well, Natsu wasn't going to argue with that. God knew it had taken them a long time to get here, and now that he'd essentially been given permission to make love to the person he planned on spending the rest of his life with, Natsu was damned well going to take advantage of it._

 _For his part, Zeref tried not to think about anything at all for fear of dredging up some thought or memory that would make him tense up and interrupt the moment. Instead, he focused on just_ feeling _—the comforting solidity of Natsu's body against his, the burning tingle left in the wake of calloused fingers that made him shiver, the rapid beat of his own heart in his chest... He focused on the heat and the pleasure, and on the pain too—because it did still hurt a little when Natsu pushed into him even though he could tell Natsu was trying to be gentle—but Zeref didn't mind. He found that the pain helped make the pleasure less overwhelming, and reminded him that this was real, and not just some trick or dream or hallucination._

Later, after they'd dozed off and woken up again with Zeref curled up against Natsu's chest and the dim light of approaching dawn seeping through the blinds over the window, Natsu finally asked him exactly what had been going through his mind before and during the party. Zeref took a moment to answer, trying in his way to find the best words to explain what had been a rather long and convoluted progression of thoughts.

" _I... like being close to you, but sometimes, it still makes me uncomfortable—especially when its unfamiliar. I think... it's a reflex that is hard to get over. But," and his voice got quieter so even Natsu had to hold very still to hear him, "I wanted to be yours, so I thought about it and decided that the wine would help with the first time. I observed how it affected other people and did some estimates around body weight, alcohol content, and tolerance and so forth. I... suppose I could have talked to you about it, but I know and you know that what you think and what you want tend to have a great influence on me, and I thought it would be important to you to know that it really was my decision and not just me going along with yours."_

Natsu hadn't been quite sure what to make of this or how to put his emotions into words at that moment. So instead of saying anything, he gathered the other boy closer to him and just accepted the gift for what it was.

Sometimes words were helpful. Sometimes they were not.

.

That was the thing with life sometimes. It was full of little twists and turns and small events that were nonetheless incredibly significant and large events that turned out not to make any difference in the way of things.

Going from high school to college had caused barely a ripple in their lives when it maybe should have felt like a big step forward. It wasn't like they had families to leave behind, and they'd already been sharing a room. College classes were different, of course, but they were still classes. Zeref still helped Natsu with his homework and Natsu still made sure they took breaks from studying to do other things. Learning to cook for themselves had been—and still was—a bit of an adventure...

" _Uh, what happened to the dumplings?"_

" _...I think perhaps we did not use enough water?"_

" _It's probably still edible though, right? I mean, they smell okay, and just because they're kind of soggy and falling apart doesn't mean they've gone bad."_

" _I would assume so. I suppose we shall find out."_

...But now that they mostly had the basics down, it was fun and not generally disastrous.

The day after they returned home, they slept in late and then threw together a few scrambled egg sandwiches for brunch before going for a brief walk around campus and then returning to log into the game. Lucy was already at the city plaza where they had decided to meet, but she was the only one. When she saw them appear, she waved her arms to get their attention.

Natsu started towards her, but his partner tugged on his sleeve and excused himself to examine the nearby stores.

"So how was your camping trip?" Lucy asked as he approached. She sat down on the edge of the fountain to wait for the remaining members of their team.

"Good. The weather was decent, the fishing was good, and it's nice to get away from civilization for awhile." Natsu leaned against one of the five miniature stone obelisks that surrounded the fountain, their faces carved with information on the city. He kept one eye on his partner, who was purchasing supplies at a stall stocked with magic and health restoratives, and the other eye stayed on the people passing on the street. "What about you? Do anything fun?"

"I went to a concert with a few friends. I'd never heard the band play before, but my friends' are huge fans."

"A concert, huh?"

Natsu folded his arms across his chest. He had been to a concert only once, and it had been a bit of a disaster. Some of Natsu's high school friends had won a bunch of tickets from a contest and invited them, and Natsu had agreed since neither of them had ever been to a concert before. He hadn't realized just how many people there would be or how noisy and insane fans could get. He and Zeref had gotten separated by the jostling, screaming, cheering crowd, and he'd spent a frantic ten minutes searching for the dark-haired boy. He'd finally found Zeref out in the parking lot, sitting on the curb beyond the reach of the street lights and the lights from the building where the darkness made it harder for people to see him. When Zeref saw him, he'd shocked his wild-haired friend by bursting into tears and then asking if they could go home. In retrospect, Natsu thought he should have known that Zeref would find the chaos—the flashing lights and the suffocating press of bodies and the speakers blaring out sound loud enough to break eardrums—extremely overwhelming.

So Natsu had sent his friends a text message, and then the two of them had gone home—on foot since neither of them drove. It had taken them an hour, although the walk helped ease Zeref's stress, and he'd gone straight to bed once they got back to their room. Natsu himself had sat up for another half hour, watching him and feeling guilty. He didn't like it when people cried, and he liked it even less when it was his fault. And he'd realized, too, that perhaps he ought to take more care with his decisions where the other boy was concerned. He had to think things through more and learn to read his friend better—for all that he had thought he'd known him well already at that point. But people were complex, and Zeref perhaps a bit more complex than most. Certainly, any psychologist would have a field day with him, not that they'd be able to get Zeref to tell them anything about his thoughts.

Natsu didn't tell Lucy any of this however. There were some things that even good friends didn't need to know. Instead, he turned the talk to more general things.

"So have you participated in any special events? There was one awhile back based on a concert."

Lucy sighed. "I wasn't able to do that one because of some family affairs. Most of the really big special events look way too tough for me. I think they're designed to keep the higher level players entertained. Though there was this art festival event that was a lot of fun."

"Ah, we had our eye on that one, but Zeref worked himself into a bad cold." Natsu made a face at the memory. "He does that sometimes if I'm not careful, and he absolutely refuses to go to the hospital for anything. He told me that he'd rather die than go and be poked and prodded by people he doesn't know."

"I'm sure that's an exaggeration."

"You'd think so, wouldn't you? But no, Zeref never exaggerates anything. Of course, if it ever did come to something really serious, I doubt he'd be able to object to me taking him to the hospital."

Lucy rested her elbows on her knees, lips pursed in thought. "It would be cool to be a doctor. I always thought it was a really meaningful profession, although I'm probably more cut out to be a journalist."

"We've got a friend whose planning to be a doctor," Natsu said. "She's already started looking at medical school options and interning at local hospitals."

"Wow." Lucy smiled, expression a touch wistful. "Hearing about other people's plans always makes me wonder what I'm going to do with my life."

Natsu shrugged. "One step at a time, right? It's not like we've all got to have our entire careers mapped out."

"You said you're in college though," Lucy pointed out. "Should you be thinking more about these things?"

Natsu took his time answering, watching his partner dither by the supplies stall. Zeref seemed to be struggling with the decision to talk to the group of players that had crowded about the neighboring store. Natsu wondered what he had overheard.

"I'm thinking about getting a teaching license so I can get a job at a middle or high school—phys ed, maybe, or chemistry." He grinned. "I like using Bunsen burners and mixing chemicals that explode. Anyway, I like working with older kids, and I'm no good at desk work. It's far too boring."

"And Zeref?"

"He's going to graduate school, and he'll probably end up being a professor. He's done research in a couple different areas, mostly physics, but he's thinking about focusing on education too, probably in the sciences or possibly literature—you know, something practical. He's a good teacher, but he prefers to do his teaching from a distance. Who knows though? Things could change."

By the vendors', Zeref seemed to have decided that he had better talk to the other players after all. Natsu watched them give a brief exchange, and then his partner came back with a slight frown on his face.

"It seems that we will need to go to the Bone Yard Gate to get to the mansion. None of the other gates will take people there anymore."

"That's good to know." Natsu paused, calling up a map of Fiore. The rectangular image hung in the air before him, semitransparent but clearly decipherable. "Looks like we'll be doing a lot of walking today."

.

The Bone Yard had certainly earned its name. The square acre of graveyard teemed with—well, not _life_ obviously, but activity. It resembled nothing so much as a skeleton social. There were skeletons sword fighting, skeletons watching and cheering them on, skeletons dicing and playing cards—it might have been kind of funny if they didn't all have pinpricks of bloody red light in their empty eye sockets.

The Bone Yard Gate was a glimmering rectangle of cold blue light between two towering, stone pillars at the very center of the party.

"That's a lot of monsters," Lucy said, peering over the low stone wall of the cemetery. "Could we just send Zeref in to clear them out so we can reach the gate before they regenerate?"

The Demon Summoner shook his head. "That spell doesn't generally work on things that are considered already dead."

"Oh, that's too bad."

"I think it's more interesting this way," Natsu said. "Come on, no point waiting around. It's not like they're going to get tired."

Blasting their way through to the gate turned out to be quite easy. It wasn't until the light of the transportation had faded around them that they were caught by surprise.

Natsu swore.

Where there had once been a grand mansion, now there was only a scattering of rooftops. Everything else was a vast, unbroken expanse of white. The entire building and its surrounding lands had been buried in what had to be thousands upon thousands of tons of snow.

"What now?" Gray asked after a moment of stunned silence. "Do we dig our way down to a window or something?"

"That would be one way," Zeref said. "But considering the time of year, my guess is that we're supposed to use that."

Following the direction of his pointing finger, the team of wizards saw—the top of a square, brick chimney the size of a well.

The five of them gathered around it and stared dubiously down into the darkness. Unlike a normal chimney, this one appeared to lead onto a slide of some sort.

"Do you think it's booby-trapped?" Lucy wondered aloud.

"It's hard to say," Erza said, eyes narrowed. "But since I'm the one with the armor, I shall go first."

The trip down into the mansion turned out not to be rigged in any way, but it was a long, dark, and claustrophobic journey. Most of them spent the time wondering just how they were going to get back out again later.

The slide deposited them on the floor of a long, wide hallway lined with mirrors, their silver faces streaked with frost.

"It's suspiciously quiet," Erza murmured, summoning a sword and carefully inspecting every inch of their surroundings.

"I hate it when you say things like that," Lucy told her. "Something bad always happens."

Her friend threw her an amused look.

"Of course something bad always happens. This is a dungeon after all. What else would you expect?"

The hallway in question chose that moment to respond to Erza's suspicions.

Five snowmen tipped and twirled out of the mirrors, the silvered glass rippling like water. Their raisin-delineated smiles gave them a manically cheerful look as they attacked, swinging their claw-like, tree-branch arms.

The first snowman evaporated in a blast of fire and the second was split down the middle by Erza's sword. As soon as they vanished, however, another two snowmen pulled themselves free, trailing silver droplets as the mirrors let them go. The remaining three wizards joined the battle, but it didn't seem to make much of a difference. Every time a snowman was destroyed, another clawed free of the walls to replace it.

Zeref dodged the flailing arms of a snowman and stumbled through a doorway into another room. Hastily, he turned, gathering another sphere of energy in his hand. The attack he'd expected never came, however. Instead, the snowman that had been assaulting him swayed a little from side to side and then just crumbled and melted away. Zeref blinked and took the respite to survey the battle.

There were now four wizards in the vast hall and four snowmen.

Four wizards. Four snowmen. A hall lined with mirrors.

He raised his voice, hoping his teammates could hear him over the fighting, "Don't bother fighting them. As long as there are players in this hallway, there will be the same number of snowmen."

It took a moment for the observation to sink in, and then all four wizards came piling through the door pursued by their respective opponents. As soon as the last player's foot crossed the threshold, the mirrored hallway went quiet. No sign remained that there had ever been five mad snowmen raging through it.

"Lovely welcome party," Erza said dryly.

"I'm sure there will be worse later," Gray replied. "Hey, for you people who have been here before, any idea where we are and which way we should go?"

Gray's prediction came true in a rather unexpected way six rooms, several hallways, and two floors later.

They fought their way through skeletal reindeer, showers of dagger-sharp icicles, and monster Christmas trees with leaves like steel needles—but all that was just business as usual in the game. No, as far as the team was concerned, the worst part was the first major ballroom that they had to pass in order to reach their destination. The room was full of men and women dancing, dressed in elegant garments and wearing masks. They didn't respond to being attacked, couldn't be damaged, and wouldn't get out of the way to let them through. In the end, they had to dance their way across with the handful of partner-less masked dancers. It was—as far as Zeref was concerned at least—a horribly uncomfortable and slightly mortifying experience.

It was a tired, bemused, and rather bedraggled team that finally stood in the middle of the mansion's largest ballroom, staring around at the images that covered its walls. The paint was faded and peeling, but despite that, they could still make out the subjects of the artwork with ease.

The angels were on the ceiling.

There were two of them with golden wings and hair as white as the snow outside. It was hard to make out details, but their arms were outstretched, reaching for one another from either side of the crystal chandelier.

"Angel's Prayer" was inscribed upon a bronze plaque upon the wall, painted as a tribute to the mansion's first owner and his hopes for a bright future.

Unfortunately, their future currently looked a little grim.

"This seems like kind of a problem," Natsu said, frowning. "I mean, we can't exactly take the ceiling with us."

"Maybe we could take a piece of it?" Gray suggested.

"Or I wonder if a photograph would work," Lucy said. "I've got this blank picture frame that will take one."

"Perhaps we should do both to be safe," Zeref said after some consideration. "It seems likely that they expected one or the other since they couldn't have wanted us to carry the ceiling back."

It would take an entire army of players to do that. And that was assuming the gate allowed them to pass through with it intact.

.

The following afternoon found the five wizards gathered around the statue of Mavis. After some discussion, they draped the Fairy Cloak over her shoulders, pinned it in place with the Star Broach, and set both the photograph and the ceiling tile from their visit to the Angel's Prayer on the pedestal at her feet. Once they had all stepped back, the items they had brought began to glow. The pale golden light spread to envelope the statue then cascade down into the fountain until it overflowed. From there, it rippled outward to fill the courtyard and wrap around the building to which said yard belonged, growing brighter as it went until they had to shut their eyes or be blinded by its intensity.

When they were able to see again, the scene around them had been utterly transformed. The cloak and broach had turned to stone, becoming part of the statue. Both the photograph and tile had vanished, and what had once looked like a dilapidated house with a front yard overrun by weeds now appeared brand new and pristine.

Natsu read the name painted above the door aloud. "Fairy Tail? That's kind of a weird name."

Erza shrugged. "I got the idea from a story Lucy wrote last year."

Lucy blushed. "I didn't know you read that."

"No need to be embarrassed. It was good." Erza smiled broadly, climbing up the front steps and turning to face them, resting one hand on the newly painted doorframe. "We're going to be the guild that makes impossible things possible. The guild that surpasses limitations and where its members can all pursue their dreams together."

The wind chose that moment to brush through her long, scarlet mane and add to the dramatic ambience of the moment.

"This is our guild. Fairy Tail."

At another time, this element of drama would have been the scene feel silly. But somehow, after all the things they had been through together to acquire the items they had been asked to find, the Dimension Knight's words filled them all with a strangely warm sense of pride and accomplishment. They had made the first step. They were now officially a guild.

.

Zeref removed his headgear and set it down on the table before looking out the window.

"It's snowing."

The fluffy, white flakes fell past the glass, soft and soundless unlike the rain they had had earlier in the year. While they'd been online, it had already begun to gather into small drifts upon the rooftops and pavement. Natsu stood up and stretched.

"Good thing we don't have to go anywhere. What do you think about hotpot for dinner? It's easy and we have all the materials."

Zeref nodded and got up to start making preparations. The meat would have to be defrosted, and where had they put that sauce? It felt like it had been awhile since he had last seen it.

"It wasn't the most difficult quest we've completed," he said as he searched the cupboards. "But... for some reason, I feel like we've accomplished something monumental."

"That's because we accomplished it together," Natsu said. "Us, Erza, Gray, Lucy—we all played a part in it to make it work."

His partner pondered this.

"And that makes it great?"

"Well, I think it does."

Natsu pulled several packages out of the freezer and set about opening them with a pair of scissors, using one of the sharp edges like he would have a knife.

He was probably right, Zeref thought. It was certainly much harder to get a group of people to work together successfully than it was to do something all by yourself. He had seen too much of the politics of the academy and other industries to feel differently. Not only did different people have their own often conflicting agendas, so did different companies, different schools—even different departments within the same university.

Perhaps he wouldn't have been so cynical if he hadn't been given the particular gifts that he had. People were often drawn to genius, and Zeref disliked this fact quite intensely. He disliked the way these people looked at him, like some fascinating specimen—all admiration calculation or envy. They didn't want to know who he was, didn't want to know that he had no great dreams or aspirations, didn't want to know his real likes and dislikes or his fears and insecurities. They wanted to know what he could do for them, and because he was young, they thought it would be easy to influence him. After conference presentations or meetings with potential sponsors, all he wanted to do was go home and drown himself in coffee and listen to Natsu talk about the last competition he'd been in. If it wasn't for Natsu, he would have given in to that feeling of pointlessness a long time ago.

Natsu sorted through the stack of mail on the table as he cleared the tabletop, making room for the hotpot equipment Zeref had unearthed from amidst their collection of pots and pans.

"Hey, look what they sent us."

Natsu set the large green envelope on the table and held the card out to him.

Zeref finished pouring the soup broth into the pot then accepted the card, turning it over in his hands. He could tell right away that the card was handmade. It had been pasted together from a collection of construction paper snowmen so that the front looked like the march of a snowman army. When he opened it, he found more than a dozen signatures accompanied by little notes. "They", it turned out, were the children at the orphanage. He and Natsu still went back there sometimes, him to help the kids with their homework and Natsu to organize group games to try and get the children to open up and make friends.

Zeref smiled, feeling oddly touched. He didn't think he'd done anything big or especially worthy of thanks, but it was nice to know that it had still mattered—even a little—to someone.

"I was just thinking that these walls could use something to make them less boring," Natsu said.

Zeref glanced up at the blank walls of the studio.

"Do we have any dark colored scrap paper?"

"There were some red and green flyers in the mail that I was going to throw away. Why?"

"Our walls are white. These snowmen are white. If we don't make some kind of background, they won't stand out."

"Huh, you're right. I'll get some tape."

It was these little things, Zeref thought as he and Natsu worked to create a decent backdrop for the snowmen, that made life worth living.

And while they were at it, they used the remaining flyers that they'd collected in the weeks leading up to the holidays to cut out a few evergreens. Then they cut up some red paper to make ornaments and some yellow paper to make stars to cap the Christmas trees with.

Bright as the lights were in their studio, they really managed to bring out the color in their new decorations, and combined with the bubble and steam from the hotpot, the small living space had suddenly acquired a rather festive air. And in a quiet sort of way, Zeref found that he rather liked it. There was something about it that emphasized the fact that there were people living here, real people with lives that extended beyond the studio's four walls.

"About... Wendy's Christmas party," Zeref said suddenly.

"Yeah?"

"I... suppose we could go. And... perhaps we should see if anyone else wants to go to the New Year's fireworks."

Natsu glanced at him over the bubbling pot, surprised but not displeased.

"Sure, I think that's a great idea."

And if everyone else had plans, well, that was good too. Maybe better. But either way, they would make sure it was memorable.

This year was drawing to a close, and another year was just beginning. It was one more step forward on a very long road, that was all. But, at the risk of sounding a little melodramatic, Zeref thought that perhaps he really ought to think more about who he wanted to travel on that road with him. He knew that Natsu occasionally worried about the fact that Zeref didn't have any other close friends. For Natsu at least, if not for himself, Zeref felt that perhaps he had to try a little harder to reciprocate when people made the effort to reach out to him. Not everyone had ulterior motives; sometimes, they really just wanted to get to know him. Really just wanted to be his friend.

Zeref blinked when a pair of chopsticks appeared in front of him and pushed a piece of something that turned out to be faux crab meat against his lips. After he'd swallowed, he gave his partner a rather confused, "What was that for?"

Natsu gestured vaguely with his now empty chopsticks. "Just checking if you're paying attention. We're supposed to be enjoying dinner here. If you don't start eating, I'm afraid I'll finish it all."

Zeref looked down. One tray of beef was already empty and a good portion of everything else had disappeared—faux crab, vegetables, tofu, those stuffed egg dumpling things...

"There is more in the fridge," Zeref said. "Should we get them out?"

* * *

 **END**

* * *

 **.**


End file.
